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Friday, December 21, 2012

[Kame's Review]: "Battered Not Broken"

Battered Not Broken by Ranae Rose

Publication Date: December 19th, 2012

Genre: Contemporary Romance (Erotica)

Ryan Moore forged his own path when he defied his wealthy family’s expectations by joining the United States Marine Corps as an enlisted man. After a period of service that’s cut short by an IED explosion, the lingering physical and mental effects of war result in an isolated struggle to exist in the civilian world. He throws himself into competitive MMA fighting – the one thing he’s still able to excel at, even if every match is a risk he can’t afford to take.

His first encounter with amateur female fighter Ally Rivera ignites a spark of desire he hasn’t felt since before a bomb left its marks on his life and his body, but his flirtation with her turns out to be anything but harmless. She’s struggling to hold together a family ravaged by violence – a feat that isn’t easy when her father has been imprisoned, leaving her vulnerable to relatives who run a local gang. Can two unrelenting fighters overcome challenges they couldn’t defeat alone, or do the wounds of war and crime run too deep for even love to heal?

Some books boast they have military heroes, others say they have characters involved in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA); when you read them you realize they have a character that was in the military but their military career was idealistic, and a lot of MMA characters go to a gym but you never read about an actual fight or training.Ranae Rose has dealt with both of these types of characters, all in one and done so in the wonderful package of Ryan Moore.

Ryan is a retired Marine, honorably discharged after he was injured during an IED blast.He has visible and invisible effects of that blast.He is all alone in the world, as he has distanced himself from his family because he wanted to make his own choices in his life.He could not go home and he did not want to be near his Marine buddies so he settles in Baltimore.He is just “existing instead of really living.”He was interested in MMA before the blast, and now finding a new gym has given him peace. Ally Rivera discovered MMA out of encouragement from her mother.She is one of the few women at the Knockout club.She fights in a few exhibition matches to earn extra income.She does it because she loves MMA, and she and her mother really need the money.Ally notices Ryan the instant he walks into the gym, he is starring at her and her sparring partner and best friend Melissa’s direction.His eyes are the bluest blue she has ever seen, and the tattoo on his back catches her eye.Even if he noticed her, it wouldn’t matter; Ally has a standing rule of not dating strangers.An incident causes her to put that rule aside, their first date has an atypical ending and is the start of one of the most unpredictable romance progressions I have read to date.

“When I was in Afghanistan, I wanted to come home. When I did, it wasn’t like I’d thought it would be. And then I didn’t want anything, really, because I didn’t know what to want.Until I saw you.”

This book is a solid 4 star read for me.I liked Ryan and Ally’s characters.It seemed I got to know their characters better as the story progressed, same as you get to know a person as you progress from date to date. Their dialogue was realistic, Ryan and Ally talked like a new couple would, asking the questions you do when you are getting to know another person, and their disagreements are believable. They did not instantly fall in love.I would trade in one sex scene for more character development; specifically more of their thoughts in a few tense situations.This book was described to me by the author as an erotic romance.Please do not let the term erotic steer you away, this is by far not the hottest book I have ever read, and all the intimate scenes are what I would characterize as mainstream. The intimate scenes are plenty and varied, just like a real couple.

This was a refreshing read.I am thankful to the author for giving me an ARC of this book and I look forward to more from her; hopefully more stories like this one!

4 STARS!

~*~*~*~

Kame received an ARC from the author in exchange for her honest review.

*NOTE*: The quote used in this review is the property of Ranae Rose. Kame and TBQ's Book Palace do not claim it in anyway.

~*~*~*~Meet Kame:

Kame is part of a family of readers; one day she picked up the Nook she purchased for her husband and discovered her love of e-books. A few months later he purchased one for her so he could have his back! Kame’s Nook is never far, and she is hard pressed to pick a favorite book, genre or author. As long as there are characters that make her want to sit down and have a chat and a plot keeps the pages turning, she’ll read it.

Don't forget to come back on Jan 18th when Kame and I will both be interviewing Ranae Rose! Let the fun begin..

Enjoy!

Until Next Time,*TBQ's Book Palace is a member of both the Amazon and Barnes and Nobles affiliates program. By using the links provided to buy products from either website, I receive a very small percentage of the order. To read my full disclosure on the matter, please see this post!

Ranae - it was fun...as I said I flipped thru it to see how long it was, read a page here and there and then abandoned what I was reading to finish it. I want to read more about Ryan and know that he is okay. I hope we have more people stopping by for the interview! Thanks for giving me an ARC

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Reviewing: Unless otherwise stated, generally the books we review on TBQ's Book Palace were sent from a publisher/author for us to review. We are not paid to review said book, We receive the book for free, and in exchange provide an honest, but accurate, review. We do not make biased reviews because we received the book free of charge.